Challenge Accepted
by SallysFunnyKiss
Summary: It seems like Eggman's up to no good once more, but with some... interesting new helpers in tow. So it's only fair that the Blue Blur and his two-tailed partner in crime-fighting should be able to counter with something just as interesting, right? It's a good ol' Sonic adventure with a Mega Man twist! Nuh nuh nuh nuh, super fighting hedgehog... Rated T just to be safe.
1. Chapter 1

_Hey guys, SallysFunnyKiss here with an important announcement- Shadow 2 is NOT finished, but I thought that I'd just take a little break... with a little crossover. Enjoy! A Story Image is in the works, but I have a driver's ed class later, so expect it some time this week. Oh, and I'm aware that there isn't a specific date listed in Mega Man one, I just felt like grouping it in with the others because, well, I just felt like it. Toodles!_

* * *

It was mid afternoon as Miles "Tails" Prower sped through the sunny skies towards the Hedgehog residence, moving so quickly that his surrogate older brother would have been prouder of him than normal. However, this went unnoticed because, 1) the aforementioned older brother wasn't there to see, and 2) the little flying fox had more important things on his mind. First of all, Sonic hadn't been seen for several days. Initially Tails thought nothing of it- the Blue Blur was a bit of a loner at heart, despite the staggeringly large collection of friends he had amassed over these twenty one years of ups and downs and all-arounds. He deserved some alone time, especially with the weight of the fate of the world on his prickly blue shoulders. Despite this, he would always notify Tails if he was going to be gone longer than the normal span of two days or so. Today, Tuesday, marked day five of Sonic's silence. On top of this, several others hadn't been heard from recently either- some friends, some foe. Sonic's absence was enough cause for some uneasiness, but the four others with lapses in communication were the icing on this cupcake of what was sure to be another call to duty. With the others gone, did this mean that another 'Tails Adventure' was in the works? _No_, Tails said in his internal monologue, _I shouldn't think like that, at least not yet..._

Meanwhile, Muttski was busy stalking a curiously non-anthro squirrel that was searching for food among the tall dark and light green checkered grass outside his masters' house. A whirring sound above him detracted from his concentration- to the little dog's delight, he saw Tails coming in for a landing. Completely forgetting about the squirrel, Muttski started to bark cheerily and dashed over to greet his friend.

"Hey, Muttski- look, I can't play now. I need to see if Sonic's mom and dad know about where he is..." Tails ran towards the house as Bernadette Hedgehog opened the front door.

"Oh, Tails- what a nice surprise! Looking for my son, I presume?"

"Yes ma'm. Wait- is he here?"

"Why, yes. You may go in and see him if you'd like. He's in his room."

"Wha- Really? Is he alright?"

"Well," she chuckled slightly, "he's alive, to say the least. Please come in." Tails, utterly bewildered and bemused upon finding out that _he was at home the entire time_, nodded hurriedly and stepped inside with Muttski bringing up the rear. He made his way around the familiar edifice, with its comforting and inviting scents and tastefully selected decor. The lady of the house tucked a lavender prickle behind her ear and nodded.

"I do agree that this is very much unlike him. Be warned- what you see may surprise you," she giggled once more. Tails made his way towards the back of the abode and opened the second door on the left.

"Sonic, are you-" Tails started out perfectly calm, but jumped back in shock upon seeing something... something so horrifyingly abhorrent...

"Ahhhh!" Sonic yelped as he saw the frightened fox in the doorway. "This isn't what it looks like!"

"Wha-? How-? WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Tails shouted. Muttski pushed his way past Tails' legs and into Sonic's room. He clumsily leapt onto his master's bed, causing the incriminating rectangular gray and black controller to slide off the hedgehog's navy-blue comforter and tumble to the floor. Tails stared at the two simple red buttons with disgust and then turned his attention to the TV, where an eight-bit mess of pixels resembled a minute, almost chibi-style robot-man-thing standing patiently in some sort of a fortress. Dressed in some sort of light blue garb with his helmet, boots, and gloves a slightly darker shade, he would occasionally blink (or at least it looked like he did- Tails couldn't quite tell _what_ that reoccurring line of black pixels was supposed to be) as a cascade of red, orange, and yellow pixels in the background attempted to bring fire to mind.

"Tails," Sonic said as he slowly (gasp!) stood up and approached the fuming little fox, "I need you to calm down and think clearly for a sec-"

"THINK CLEARLY? WHAT ABOUT YOU? WHAT ABOUT ALL THAT HARD WORK WE DID ALL THOSE YEARS AGO SPREADING THE WORD ABOUT HOW 'GENESIS DID WHAT NINTENDIDN'T?'"

"It doesn't quite work that way..."

"Yeah, I know..."

"It wasn't for nothing. I'm just, uh... doing a little research! Yeah, that's it..." Tails stood back and gave his friend what was perhaps the most epic 'bitch, please' look ever given. "Oh, alright. I browsing some of the stores online about a week ago with what was left of my birthday money, wanting to get something before they started implementing sales taxes like they've been talking about..."

"And you decided to buy the most beloved console of what used to be the main competitor of the company you're _supposed_ to represent?"

"Well... yeah, that about covers it."

"WHY?"

"Well, I dunno. I was curious about how it worked, I suppose." Tails replied with a slightly less severe 'bitch, please' look. "FINE," Sonic sighed. "I wanted to play some of the games. Particularly this one."

"You do know that there was a port of this via the Sega Channel, right?"

"First of all, the Sega Channel has been defunct since '98. Secondly, you and I both know that it was a load of crap."

"Yeah..."

"See, not so high and mighty now, eh?" the blue hedgehog teased as he picked up the dropped controller and plopped back down on his bed. "Come sit, you might like this game. It's about robots and scientists..."

"Wait- _this_ is what you've been doing for the past five days?"

"Yup."

"...And you couldn't have been bothered to call anyone to tell them that you were alright?"

"No one would have understood. In fact, you reacted waaaaaay worse than I expected you to. Come sit. Please? I guarantee you'll like it."

"I suppose..."

"That's the spirit!" Tails begrudgingly sat down beside his friend, feeling slightly betrayed. Why would he suddenly want to partake in this? "To be honest," Sonic said with a bit of a chuckle, "I've been wanting to get one for some time." Tails jumped slightly. "You were wondering out loud, little buddy."

"Oh..."

"Sooooo... should I start explaining the plot?"

"Sure..."

"Well, in the distant future of 200X..."

* * *

Fifteen minutes in, Tails was hooked. This all just seemed so... right up his alley. And he really liked the sound of this Dr. Light guy- the way Sonic described him made him sound like a god among scientists. Someone that always had the answers when it came to machinery. Someone who could be trusted to...

"WAIT! Sonic, I forgot to tell you something!"

"Go right ahead, I'm listening."

"Knuckles, Shadow, Bean, and Fang haven't been seen for quite a while, either. I called Julie-Su and Rouge earlier to see if they had any idea where the first two are, and neither could give me a solid answer. Julie-Su said that Knuckles had been invited to speak at some sort of 'Guardians of Ridiculously Large Gemstones' conference and hasn't been heard from since, and Rouge said that Shadow was out on some sort of mission from GUN that was so secret that not even she could know about it. I thought that they all sounded a bit fishy, so I needed to see you about it."

"Guardians of Ridiculously Large Gemstones conference..." Sonic snorted, "I can't believe he fell for that. Definitely sounds like Eggman's up to his old tricks again. As for Shadow, I don't know if we should be worried. After all, GUN may have just sent him out for a while just to keep his brooding and wangst from annoying everyone there..." The hedgehog and fox shared a good laugh before Sonic looked at the gray box sitting beside his television set. "Well, I guess this gives me the perfect excuse to get up and do something before I get all rusty." He got up to turn off the machine and Tails slid off the bed with Muttski. "So how do you know about Bean and Fang being gone, too?"

"Oh... I, er... spoke with, um, a member of the Destructix the other day..."

"Tails," Sonic looked at him seriously, "I thought that we weren't going to talk to Fiona anymore."

"I know, but..."

"Say no more. Let's go, lil' bud."

* * *

Meanwhile, at his fortress of evil, Eggman was grinning proudly at his work bench. In front of him were six large masses, each draped in an old, tattered cloth...


	2. Chapter 2

As the hedgehog and fox stood up to leave, Muttski started whimpering. He had long ago mastered the art of the puppy-dog eyes, and it was showing.

"Muttski, I'm sorry, but we have to..."

_But master... _Sonic heard, as clear as day.

"Speaking of which," Tails asked, "How's that translator chip working out?"

"It's fine; it's just a bit weird when I can hear my dog speaking in a language I can understand. The whole setup's kinda nice, though. Those aliens don't mess around when it comes to technology." Growing desperate, Muttski leapt off Sonic's bed and resorted to pulling his master back by his thick, white, athletic socks. "Muttski, cuddit out..."

_Please let me accompany you... I can help you!_

"Erm, Tails? You don't mind if, uh, Muttski tags along, do you?"

"As long as he wipes his paws on the welcome mat like a civilized animal. I don't want muddy paw prints in my lab."

_Oh thankyouthankyouthankyou!_

Muttski tackled the little fox and covered his face with doggy-slobber. Tails giggled and scooped him up.

"Alright," Sonic laughed, "Let's do this!"

* * *

Meanwhile, in a lab in the outskirts of Station Square, Eggman was busy brushing his new head of... hair?

"Finally! All those years of tedious research and experimenting have finally paid off! Soon, my new discovery, Eggnoxinil, will be available to all members of the Legion of Evil!"

Ummm... Eggman? Can I ask you something?

"But of course, my dear author."

Who exactly is in this "Legion of Evil?"

"Well, I'm afraid that that information is classified... for now. They probably won't even be revealed in this fic."

... But don't I get a say in this? And why do I have to write _yet another_ fic to find out? I'm already swamped as it is-

"SILENCE. You'll find out soon enough. You already know my master plan; isn't that enough for you?"

No. Besides, _I'm_ the one that masterminded your plan for this fic to begin with.

"Then just be patient. All will be revealed in good time..."

Can I ask just one more question?

"Fine."

What's with your choice in hairdo? Why not have a full head of hair instead of the Wily sty- _Oh! I see what you're going for._ I see you're wearing his lab coat, too. Carry on.

"Thank you." He lovingly patted his new 'do, which was the same shade of burnt orange as his moustache, and casually stepped outside into the comfortably warm afternoon sun. He reached into his lab coat and pulled out some sort of communicator. Quickly glancing around with the look of a mischievous toddler on his face, he pressed a button and barked "FIRE!"

Immediately a series of chain reactions bombarded the city of Station Square, which was a shame really. They had just finished repairing everything from the previous week's debacle. The budget didn't really allow for-

"SILENCE. STOP PITYING THIS GOOD-FOR-NOTHING METROPOLIS AND START DESCRIBING WHAT ELSE I HAVE IN STORE."

Okay, okay... Er, where do I start?

"MUST I DO _EVERYTHING _AROUND HERE?!"

No, but I'm still suffering from the writer's block that's plagued me for the past month. Otherwise, we'd have actually reached the Mega Man aspects by now. In fact, I might have already been halfway through.

"FINE. 'Soon, a band of six rogue robots arose from the ashes and began to march toward New Mobotropolis..."

Alright. Soon, a band of six rogue robots arose from the ashes and began to march toward New Mobotropolis. Each looked a tad bit familiar, yet somehow different. Two looked a bit like hedgehogs- one wore a tight blue outfit over his black and red prickles and- hold on. Wasn't he just over with the rest of the group a second ago? Why is he near the fountain now?

"That is Flash Man. In his arsenal is a slight variant of our usual 'Chaos Control'. It's a tad more efficient this time."

I see. And what about that other hedgehog, the white one wearing that ridiculously bright red and curved suit?

"He is Gravity Man. He has the ability to use his 'Gravity Hold-'"

You mean his psychokiNEEsis?

"Yes," he snapped with an irritated sigh, "his psychokinesis."

You're not saying it right.

"SHUT UP. _As I was saying_, he can use his 'Gravity Hold' technique to manipulate the gravity of his opponents, as well as that of his own. Very useful, very disastrous..."

Huh. And the red guy with the blocky red suit and little yellow helmet that just picked up that massive boulder?

"Can't you just wait for them to be introduced later in the story? It's more suspenseful if the reader has no clue who each Robot Master is."

Wait- did you fully roboticize them? That wasn't part of the deal, Eggy.

"Don't call me that! No, they aren't fully roboticized. I managed to tamper with the emeralds a bit and implanted one in each captive's suit, taking over their minds. The effects aren't permanent if they aren't exposed to them for too long."

Ah. So... who's the red guy?

"Just wait a minute- they'll all be revealed eventually. Besides," he said, looking up into the sky with blatant suspicion in his eyes, "why do you want me to introduce every single one? _You're_ the one that's sitting in her rolling chair at her laptop on a Saturday afternoon typing this up when everyone else her age is outside enjoying the last Saturday of summ-"

Alright, that's quite enough out of you. I just wanted to introduce them to the readers. That's all. If you're going to be such a jerkass about it, I'll kill you off in the end...

"_Nononononono_ there's no need for that! Let's just, er, keep up the drama, shall we?"

You know that I can't write dramatically to save my life.

"Well, er, uh..."

Should I just close the chapter? I've got nuthin'.

"Go right ahead. I'll go ahead with phase two of my plan in the next installment, then."

What'll it be?

"All will be revealed in good time."

* * *

_Hey guys- remember me? I used to be that person that was pretty diligent when it came to updating. But, as stated above, I've been suffering from some pretty bad writer's block. I sent this off to my beta reader a week or so ago (again, as stated above, on the last Saturday of summer), but I have yet to hear back from her. So, I'm just going to bite the bullet and post this anyway. I also have another chapter of Shadow 2 in the works, so expect that soon. However, I won't be able to update as much as I'd like, since I'm taking a bunch of classes this year with sadistic workloads... T_T_

_Anywho, SFK out._


End file.
